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Canadians would throw a fit about it though. Government employees earning over 100K triggers a lot of people.

I’ve often thought that exempting government employees from paying tax would be a decent way to slip them some extra income.

For good reason. I live in Ottawa and interact with a good many government workers that aren't shy about how little work they do. I'm not convinced increasing comp is going to somehow motivate these folks into greater productivity.

Raising the bar in the public sector is a complex topic: there are jokes about lazy public workers all over the (western?) world. There's no competition and the goals aren't as clear as profit VS loss.

But if you refuse to have competitive wages, no competent software engineer will want to work in government. Then you get some contractor job from a consulting company and good luck with that: many are happy to send a handful of junior developrts to fill their multi million contracts, with their seniors hopping in just enough time to justify the billing.

Plenty of private sector ones too. I am not doing work at any of my jobs (I am overemployed) today.

Increased comp isn't to motivate current people. It is so you aren't only hiring people at the level of skill and motivation as the current people.

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